ill steelo
where them breakdowns at
my b
I’ll get to Thibs in a moment, but what you’re seeing in Clips/Mavs is a classic playoff chess match. Neither coach married to any particular thing, very fluid approaches to the game. Both coaches trying to paint the other into a corner.
Zu got smoked in the first two games at Staples, moved to the bench and now gets the bulk of his minutes when Luka is resting.
Carlisle wants Zu out there more often obviously, so he goes with Boban for G5 against the clips small lineup
Defensively they’ve been getting destroyed with only KP at the 5. They just don’t have the personnel to slow these guys down so you lose nothing on that end.
Offensively, Boban is a massive target in the PnR against a bunch of wings & can also help on the offensive glass. You see it play out throughout the game, particularly from the 2nd quarter on.
A quick aside, KP is also ridiculously tall so this is supposed to be his role
, but unfortunately for the Mavs he’s just the tallest shooting guard in NBA history, so they’re going to Boban.
You see Luka back in, he runs PnR at the logo and Zu doesn’t leave the paint
PG steps up to prevent the easy 3, his man Hardaway now wide open. Easy bucket like we’ve seen 100x.
Ty takes him out immediately after this, Rick counters with Boban. Ty is still in drop so the Mavs run the offense as usual.
Ty has seen enough and goes back to Zu, Carlisle is elated. Mavs continue to torture him.
Then they went cold for a stretch but the process was still good, just gotta keep executing. Luckily for them the Clippers also went cold. All mostly open looks for both teams so it looks like we’re getting another shootout in the 2nd half right?